Stress and Health: Key Concepts in Psychology

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Stress and Health

Introduction

This chapter explores the psychological and physiological aspects of stress, its sources, effects on health, and coping mechanisms. Understanding stress is essential for promoting well-being and managing challenges in daily life.

Stress and Stressors

Life is About Change

Change is a constant in life, requiring adaptation to events both big and small.
Challenges and threats to well-being are inevitable and necessitate a response.

The Relationship between Stress and Stressors

Stress involves various responses to events perceived as threatening or challenging. Stressors are the events that trigger these responses.

Stress: Physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to events appraised as threatening or challenging.
Stressors: Events that cause a stress reaction.
Distress: The effect of unpleasant and undesirable stressors.
Eustress: The effect of positive events, or the optimal amount of stress needed to promote health and well-being.

Example: Preparing for an exam may cause distress if overwhelming, but eustress if it motivates productive study habits.

Types of Stressors

External Events Causing Stress

Catastrophes: Unpredictable, large-scale events requiring significant adaptation (e.g., natural disasters).
Major Life Changes: Events requiring adjustment, measured by tools such as the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) and College Undergraduate Stress Scale (CUSS).
Daily Hassles: Everyday annoyances that can accumulate and impact health.

Sample Table: Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

Life Event	Life Change Units
Death of spouse	100
Divorce	75
Marital separation	65
Death of close family member	63
Major personal injury or illness	53
Marriage	50
Additional info: Other events include job loss, pregnancy, and change in residence.

Psychological Factors in Stress

Pressure, Control, and Frustration

Pressure: Urgent demands or expectations from external sources, often leading to stress (e.g., time pressure).
Controllability: The degree of control over a situation; less control increases stress.
Frustration: Occurs when a desired goal is blocked. Can be external (losses, failures) or internal (personal limitations).

Reactions to Frustration

Persistence: Continued efforts to overcome obstacles.
Aggression: Actions intended to harm; may be displaced onto safer targets.
Escape/Withdrawal: Leaving the stressful situation.

Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis: Suggests a link between frustration and aggressive behavior.

Conflict Types

Approach-Approach Conflict: Choosing between two desirable goals.
Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict: Choosing between two undesirable goals.
Approach-Avoidance Conflict: One goal has both positive and negative aspects.
Multiple Approach-Avoidance Conflict: Several goals, each with pros and cons.

Conflict Type	Definition	Example
Approach-Approach	Choose between two desirable goals	Choosing between two fun events
Avoidance-Avoidance	Choose between two undesirable goals	Cleaning bathroom or kitchen
Approach-Avoidance	Goal with both positive and negative aspects	Getting a pet (companionship vs. cleaning)
Multiple Approach-Avoidance	Several goals with pros and cons	Choosing a college (cost, location, academics)

Physiological Factors: Stress and Health

Autonomic Nervous System

Sympathetic Division: Activates during stress (increased heart rate, slowed digestion, energy surge).
Parasympathetic Division: Returns body to normal after stress.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

Describes the body's physiological response to stress in three stages:

Alarm: Sympathetic nervous system activation.
Resistance: Continued adaptation; resources are used to cope.
Exhaustion: Resources depleted; risk of illness or death increases.

Figure: Resistance rises during alarm and resistance stages, then falls during exhaustion.

The Immune System and Stress

Immune System: Defends against disease and injury; affected by stress.
Psychoneuroimmunology: Study of psychological factors on immune function.
DHEA: Hormone that helps fight stress effects.
Short-term stress can boost immune response; chronic stress weakens it.
Allostasis: Maintaining stability through change; chronic stress leads to allostatic load (wear and tear).

Stress-Related Health Risks

Heart Disease: Increased risk due to stress and unhealthy coping behaviors.
Type 2 Diabetes: Linked to weight gain and inefficient insulin use.
Cancer: Stress impairs natural killer (NK) cells that fight tumors.

Health Psychology

Definition and Focus

Health Psychology: Studies how behavior, psychological traits, and social relationships affect health and illness.
Subfields include clinical health psychology and behavioral psychology.

Cognitive Factors of Stress

Lazarus's Cognitive Appraisal Approach

Cognitive Meditational Theory: Stress depends on how a person appraises a stressor.
Primary Appraisal: Assessing severity and classifying as threat or challenge.
Secondary Appraisal: Evaluating coping resources and options.

Cognitive Reappraisal: Reframing arousal during stress can lead to positive outcomes.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

Relationship between arousal and task performance:

Simple tasks: high-moderate arousal is optimal.
Difficult tasks: low-moderate arousal is optimal.

Personality Factors in Stress

Personality Types

Type A: Ambitious, time-conscious, hardworking, hostile; higher risk of heart disease.
Type B: Relaxed, less driven, slow to anger.
Type C: Pleasant, peace-keeping, internalizes emotions; linked to cancer risk.
Type D: Distressed, prone to chronic stress.
Hardy Personality: Thrives on stress, committed, feels in control, sees problems as challenges.

Explanatory Styles

Optimists: Expect positive outcomes; less likely to develop learned helplessness, better health.
Pessimists: Expect negative outcomes.

Social and Cultural Factors in Stress

Social Factors

Poverty: Lack of resources increases stress and health risks.
Job Stress: Workload, lack of control, poor conditions, discrimination, and job insecurity.
Burnout: Mental and physical exhaustion from prolonged stress.

Cultural Factors

Acculturative Stress: Stress from adapting to a new culture.
Methods of acculturation:
- Integration: Maintain original culture and form positive relationships with majority culture.
- Assimilation: Adopt majority culture, give up original identity.
- Separation: Reject majority culture.
- Marginalization: No ties with either culture.

Coping with Stress

Coping Strategies

Problem-Focused Coping: Directly addressing the source of stress.
Emotion-Focused Coping: Changing emotional response to stress.

Meditation

Concentrative Meditation: Focus on a repetitive stimulus to clear the mind and relax.
Mindfulness Meditation: Purposeful attention to the present moment without judgment.

Social Support

Social-Support System: Network of family, friends, and others providing comfort and aid.
Promotes physical and cognitive health, reduces stress, and increases longevity.
Marriage and gender roles ("tend and befriend") can serve as social support.

Cultural and Religious Coping

Different cultures use unique rituals and strategies to cope with stress.
Religious Beliefs: Provide social support, healthy habits, and increased longevity.

Applying Psychology: Coping with Stress in College

Common Sources of Stress for College Students

Academic pressure
Financial concerns
Social relationships
Time management

Healthy Coping Strategies

Awareness and evaluation of stress levels
Use of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping
Seeking social support
Practicing meditation and relaxation techniques

Additional info: Effective stress management improves academic performance and overall well-being.